Research Catalog
Civil tongues & polite letters in British America
- Title
- Civil tongues & polite letters in British America / David S. Shields.
- Author
- Shields, David S., 1951-
- Publication
- Chapel Hill, NC : University of North Carolina Press, [1997]
- ©1997
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1 Item
| Status | Format | Access | Call Number | Item Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Schwarzman Building to submit a request in person. | Text | Use in library | JFE 97-7623 | Schwarzman Building - Main Reading Room 315 |
Details
- Description
- xxxii, 348 pages : illustrations; 25 cm
- Summary
- In urban areas from Boston to Charleston, the elite men and women of eighteenth-century British America came together in a variety of private venues to communicate and interact. David Shields looks into the taverns, tea rooms, salons, coffee houses, card parties, clubs, and fraternities where these displays of civility took place. He argues that such spaces, formed outside the domain of the state, became key sites for elite discursive formation, for the articulation and enactment of the values of civility. In an important reinterpretation of early American literary history, he argues that the belles lettres generated for and within these institutions in fact represent a powerful colonial genre involving experimentation with manners and social identities. By examining the language and forms of various "texts"--Including conversations, letters, privately circulated manuscripts, and other forms of expression - he reconstructs the discourse of civility that flourished in and further shaped elite society in British America.
- Alternative Title
- Civil tongues and polite letters in British America
- Subjects
- Etiquette
- Social interaction
- Associations, institutions, etc
- United States
- Literature and society
- History
- To 1775
- Manners and customs
- English language > Discourse analysis
- English language > United States > Discourse analysis
- Etiquette > United States > History
- Social interaction > United States > History
- Associations, institutions, etc > United States > History
- United States > Social life and customs > To 1775
- Literature and society > United States > History
- Genre/Form
- History.
- Bibliography (note)
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- Contents
- Overture: the promise of civil discourse -- Belles Lettres and the Arenas of Metropolitan conversation -- Coffeehouse and tavern -- Tea tables and salons -- Rites of assembly -- The clubs -- The college, the press, and the public -- Gaining admission -- Toward the polite republic.
- Call Number
- JFE 97-7623
- ISBN
- 9780807823514
- 0807823511
- 9780807846568
- 0807846562
- LCCN
- 96037377
- OCLC
- 35911827
- Author
- Shields, David S., 1951-
- Title
- Civil tongues & polite letters in British America / David S. Shields.
- Publisher
- Chapel Hill, NC : University of North Carolina Press, [1997]
- Copyright Date
- ©1997
- Type of Content
- text
- Type of Medium
- unmediated
- Type of Carrier
- volume
- Bibliography
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- Chronological Term
- To 1775
- Other Form:
- Online version: Shields, David S. Civil tongues & polite letters in British America. Chapel Hill, NC : Published for the Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Virginia by University of North Carolina Press, ©1997 (OCoLC)606127858
- Research Call Number
- JFE 97-7623